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About the Piece

Prím

Áskell Másson (b. 1953) is among Iceland’s most prominent composers. He started his musical studies on clarinet, and later studied percussion at the Reykjavik College of Music and privately in London with James Blades. From 1973 to 1975 he worked as a composer and percussionist at the Ballet of the National Theater in Iceland, and from 1978 to 1983 he was a producer at the Music Department of the Iceland State Radio, after which he has devoted his time exclusively to composition. The self-taught composer’s principal works include an opera, The Ice Palace, several orchestral works including concertos for clarinet, viola, snare drum, piano, marimba, and trombone, and chamber music as well as music for the theater, film, and television. Recent performances of his works include those by Evelyn Glennie with orchestras in the U.S. and Canada, the Iceland Symphony Orchestra in Reykjavik, the Caput Ensemble in Copenhagen at the Composers Biennale, and the Hebrides Ensemble in Glasgow and Edinburgh, and at the International Society for Contemporary Music festival in Copenhagen. Evelyn Glennie has provided the following note about Prím:

“Prím, for solo snare drum, takes its name from the idea upon which it is based – the first 16 prime numbers. The entire piece is based on the rhythmic pattern that these numbers give when demisemiquavers [32nd notes] are the unit of pulse. Prím is in the nature of a further exploration of the possibilities of the snare drum as a solo instrument after the composer’s earlier Concerto for Snare Drum and Orchestra.”